Wind, Waves, and New Pages- Part 5 of 7
Moonrise over the Atlantic Ocean, en route to the African Continent.
Casablanca, Morocco was our next landfall. A whole new country, and a whole new continent. What’s there to know about modern Morocco? There’s about 38 million people. 99% of them are Sunni Muslim. There are Christians and Jews, but their numbers are only a few thousand. Mohammed VI has been king since 1999 in conjunction with a constitutional parliament. Morocco imports fuel and manufactured goods. It exports fertilizer, cars, and produce, mostly to Europe, and Casablanca is heart of the commercial activity. With 3.8 million people, the city is quite crowded.
The history of the place is a tale of various conquests. Arabs in the middle of the first millennia. Portugese and Spanish in the middle of the second millennia. The French came in 1907, and the current government won independence from France in 1956. There are prominent traces and influences still visible from all of them.
The port of Casablanca with the city stretching out to the south and east behind it.
Our first step ashore was in the middle of a dusty, dirty and noisy commercial port. After a long walk down the pier, we were greeted by armed security forces, directing us through document checks. The red flag with a green five pointed star and the portrait of the king were prominently and frequently displayed. Based on our past travels in countries with lots of flags and portraits, we had an idea of what to expect during our two days in Morocco.
Just in case you forgot who’s King, here’s another photo. You never know when you might meet him on the street, right?
Most of my photos ended up with a flag in the frame somewhere, so it became my personal challenge to not have flags.
The thing most visitors to Casablanca will see upon entering the center of the city is the Hassan II mosque. It can’t be missed because the minaret is 680 feet tall, and at night it has a bright green laser pointing east. (For comparison, the Washington Monument in D.C. is 555 feet and its red blinking “eyes” are visible all over the city.) The massive building can accommodate 25,000 faithful under its stadium-like retractable roof, and the plaza outside is designed to handle another 80,000. Having been in a few older mosques, this one was way different. While probably not the best illustration, I was reminded of an American suburban mega-church campus in comparison to the little white wood frame structure at a country cross-roads.
From the street, it is really difficult to understand the size of the place. (By the way, see the little van over on the right, with the two gents standing next to it? They are Tourism Police. A similar van somehow ended up everywhere we went, even a gas station bathroom break.)
Looking down the center of the interior still doesn’t give a sense of size, unless your eye picks up the little human specks on the left side. For the unfamiliar, the men do their prayers on the main floor. The women assemble on the raised decks to either side, safely separated from view by lattice screens.
The decorative tiles on the top of the minaret are often knocked loose by storms. Watching where you walk can yield a handful of souvenir fragments.
Following the mosque visit, we moved southwest along the shoreline to see more of the city. Because many folks only recognize the name of the city from the 1942 classic film Casablanca, staring Bogart and Bergman, the locals have constructed a replica Rick’s to make the trip feel more relatable. Like many establishments, it wasn’t open during Ramadan.
The original soundstage Rick’s.
The replica Rick’s tourist attraction.
The next stop was a beachside cafe where we were treated to a taste of the local coffee, tea, and pastries. Since The Captain and I aren’t coffee drinkers, we took a trial run at the hot mint tea and a local produced Pepsi Zero Sugar. (It’s okay to laugh at that, but don’t laugh too hard. The foreign version of American products can be shockingly different.)
The tea was sweet and minty, but seriously strong. The Pepsi was mostly the same, except for the retro pop-top can. I felt compelled to drop the pop-top in the can afterwards, just to hear that familiar rattle sound from my youth. Then I had to hum the Jimmie Buffet verse from Margaritaville about flip-flops and a pop-top….
The beachside was empty except for some maintenance workers in one of the pools. Casablanca is considered a resort destination during the summer high season.
Our afternoon trek took us up towards the royal palace where King Mohammed VI was reported to be “in residence.” No, we didn’t get to see him. Instead, we were guided through the medina around the king’s local crash pad. We also appreciated, but were warned not to photograph, the men in a variety of uniforms. Army soldiers in gray-green, Royal Police in blue, and the Royal Guards in red.
The three different agencies represented at every post, even around the back of the royal gardens and residence.
A medina in the north African usage of the word, not to be confused with the city Medina in Saudia Arabia, is a walled town, or old neighborhood. During our wanderings among the shops in this medina, we heard a loud, vigorous argument between a man and woman taking place in an apartment somewhere above us. Our guide joked about it, calling it the Ramadan “sense of humor.” By mid-afternoon arguments can flare quickly because everybody is getting grumpy from lack of water, food, and sex, but most often the “humor” is a craving for cigarettes.
The next morning we watched the sunrise over the Casablanca container terminal. Memorable for the hum of machinery and back-up beepers on the trucks.
On our second day in Morocco, we traveled to the Unesco Heritage town of El Jadida. We started early and got a first-hand view of rush hour. After a lot of start-stop, we eventually made it into the countryside. The traffic in the center of the city was unusually heavy that morning because a film crew was “on location,” and jamming up the usual routes. Hollywood loves filming in Morocco. Scenery and tax incentives for the win!
Morning traffic in the city. Motorbikes are the prime mover for much of Casablanca.
The Casablanca fish market wrapping up for the day.
Local growers haul produce into the city every morning, selling directly to the apartment dwellers. The empty lot has been cleared to make way for new apartments, hopefully completed in time for the 2030 FIFA Cup.
Finally on the freeway, our bus (and tourism police van “escort”) cruised through the agricultural countryside, enjoying the authentic sights and smells.
Most farms were either planted with produce or used for grazing. The flocks were always attended by at least one shepherd. On the left side of this photo three people are crouched on the ground, watching the animals.
An hour out of “Casa” as the locals call it, our bus exited the freeway and followed a two lane road towards the coast. Approaching the outskirts of El Jadida, the vehicle traffic in front of us came to a halt. “Check point,” the guide said. Apparently inter-city travel is enough of a security vulnerability in Morocco that the police have check points at the edge of most towns. When it was our turn, the driver and guide flashed their credentials and we were allowed to proceed.
Just inside the check point, we passed a McDonalds. Closed for Ramadan, of course…no McArabia today.
El Jadida is loaded with history, and was exactly the kind of thing we like to see on a trip. The Portuguese settled around the ancient Phoenician anchorage in 1502, calling it Mazagan, then over the next decade built a fort that could defend the harbor and settlement. The fortification was the last Portuguese stronghold, surrendered in 1769. Because the fort had been occupied by infidels it was considered “defiled” for muslims and it was eventually occupied by the area’s Jewish population. After 1821 it became known as Al Jadida, or “new fort” when the fortress was rebuilt, this time with a mosque.
The fort at Al Jadida is a classic four sided design. Elevated bastions on each corner protect the the harbor and the approximately 300 meter long main walls. The collection of guns ranged from very old Portuguese and Spanish pieces to a pair of US Parrott Rifles and an unidentified breech loading type of field gun.
The land side of the fort would have been low, level ground that is easy to cover with cannon fire. Now it is the main street. The once “defiled” fort is still home to a couple thousand residents.
Our guide Ali, always with his flag in hand, explains the two part door and double knockers on this structure inside the fort. The lower knocker and inset door are for visitors on foot. The full door and upper knocker are for visitors on horseback.
With the completion of the New Fort tour, we were shown another kind of fortification common to North Africa, the casbah. Not far up the coast from Al Jadida, the Oum Er-Rbia river arrives at the ocean after traveling 345 miles down from the Atlas Mountains. On the left bank, situated on a prominent rise is the fortified city of Azemmour. The location has been occupied on and off since Roman times because of its desirable geography. Into the 15th Century is was basically a city-state unto itself. That ended with the arrival of the Portuguese. The current casbah fortifications and medina city walls were constructed after the Portuguese took control in 1513. Like El Jadida, Azemmour is still home several thousand residents.
The grounds outside the walls of the Azemmour medina undergoing some much need refurbishment.
Occupying the high ground along the river, the casbah fortifications towering over the walls of the medina. Despite the advantageous position, the Portuguese took the town with minimal resistance.
The inside of the medina is a crazy maze of narrow streets.
Our next stop was an authentic Moroccan lunch, but first there was the matter of passing another check point guarded with the assistance of some sheep.
On our way to lunch, we passed this facility. The King is a fan of the equestrian sports, and as such, he took it upon himself to build an exposition center named for himself. It was probably the nicest building we saw in the country.
The second nicest place we saw was the Royal Golf, located right down the road from the horses. We were able to have lunch in their Al Jawhara dining room because it is a “private” establishment. So, I’m still wondering… if you eat authentic tagine during daylight hours during Ramadan, is it really authentic?
On the way back to “Casa,” we got a Moroccan “lifestyle” reminder. On the shoulder of the freeway overpass, the local market was forming up to sell goods for the evening meal. Little carts of veggies, eggs, and live chickens with bound feet were arrayed along the road. This young lady was in to refill her water jugs and buy some groceries.
As we approached the city, it was once again the land of concrete construction. This time it looked like more “upscale” townhouses in addition to the usual ten story apartment mega-blocks. There was even a “mall” being built near this neighborhood. Note the ubiquitous local “highway patrol” car.
Our time in Morocco ended much the same way it started, with the unmistakable view of the Hassan II Mosque, this time with the full-on green laser light show.